ET the Extra-Terrestrial Review
ET the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) Film Exama film realized by Steven Spielbergwritten by Melissa Mathison and featuring Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore, Pierre Coyote, Dee Wallace, Robert MacNaughton, KC Martel, Sean Frie, C. Thomas Howell, Erika Eleniak and Kogan milk.
Filmmaker extraordinaire Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi masterpiece, AND the Extra Terrestrial, returned to theaters for its 40th anniversary. Seeing it again on the big screen was like reliving a part of my childhood and it was one of the most exquisite experiences I’ve had in cinema lately. Like eating the alien ET character’s favorite candy in the movie, Reese’s Pieces, seeing this movie never gets stale. It’s a story of friendship, family, love and the healing power of personal relationships. In the film, the most important personal bond is the friendship between a young boy named Elliott (Henry Thomas) and an alien who simply needs to return to his planet but forms an unforgettable bond with Elliott over the course of the film. touching story.
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Dee Wallace portrays Mary who is Elliott’s mother. Marie is the mother of three children. She usually works and does her best to keep her family together in her ex-husband’s absence. Drew Barrymore plays Gertie, Elliott’s sister while Robert MacNaughton is Elliott’s older brother, Michael. At the start of the film, some aliens flee Earth and leave behind one of their own as some humans are in pursuit of these aliens. Elliott is immediately spooked at the thought of a creature in the backyard as he throws a ball which is thrown back at him by ET who is the alien who has been left behind. Elliott drops the pizza he fetched for Michael and his friends following his interaction with ET and Elliott runs back to tell his family the news of his encounter, but no one believes him.
Spielberg aptly sparks public curiosity about when viewers will get to see ET’s true alien persona up close. Spielberg was a master at keeping audiences spellbound by seeing the main characters in some of his most popular films. In Jawswe had to wait a bit to see the shark up close and in the much later movie, jurassic parkwe had to be patient until the dinosaurs hit the screen in full force.
Eventually, a lead from Reese’s Pieces leads ET to Elliott’s room where the young child shows the alien some action figures from the star wars films and teaches ET about some essentials of life on Earth. Eventually, it is discovered that ET wants to “phone home” and return to his family. ET wants them to pick him up and bring him back to his planet, but not before his relationship with Elliott has a powerful impact on the life of both the child and the alien. Let’s not talk about Elliott’s siblings who soon take a liking to the alien as well. In a hilarious scene, Gertie meets ET for the first time and screams out loud, but soon she teaches him how to talk and he tells her to “be good”.
The performances are all good in a film where acting could be taken for granted. Everyone is interested in the ET character (and rightly so), but Dee Wallace, in particular, stood out playing a mother who does her best to hold on to her family in difficult circumstances even before the arrival of ET. Thomas has an appeal about her that makes Elliott ever relatable while Barrymore proved she was (and still is) a shining talent on screen. MacNaughton’s Michael has always been a character that seemed to be taken for granted, but the quality of MacNaughton’s turn was absolutely amazing.
There are a series of moments in the film that feature Elliott (who has a newfound respect for life due to his interaction with ET) in the outside world. At Elliott’s school, the young boy releases jumping frogs from his science class into the world with the help of his classmates. It’s a series of scenes that provide much-needed comic relief to the film and show how Elliott has changed over the course of the picture.
This film is not all soft and hysterically funny. There are some very serious moments in the picture, like when the government hunts down ET (who has become very ill) and authorities arrive right after Halloween to see what they can learn from ET through experimental testing. Spielberg and screenwriter Melissa Mathison gave plenty of in-depth insight into the ideas of people coming (which includes Peter Coyote in a nice twist) in a short amount of screen time. Coyote’s character Keys doesn’t want to hurt ET but he doesn’t want him to go home either. There are heavy and complex subjects that the film courageously pursues in this part of the film.
Technically, the film is amazing, from the moving musical score by John Williams, to the alien effects that include ET’s glowing finger that can heal a cut and the glowing, glowing alien heart that the film displays in key scenes throughout. throughout the movie. All the plot threads and visual effects are woven into the picture perfectly.
What would be AND the extra-terrestrial Do without the flying bike scenes that the film proudly presents to audiences alongside some of the most memorable music Williams has ever created? A little less perfect, perhaps. These scenes on the bike Elliott rides with ET are deep and moving, and demonstrate the film’s theme of being able to soar against the odds, even in the toughest of times.
Even after 40 years, AND the extra-terrestrial still presents audiences with a timeless story of the healing power of friendship that needs to be seen, preferably on the big screen. It’s one of the most stunning cinematic triumphs of all time. Spielberg is still a genius to this day, sure, but this movie is truly his most beloved image ever, and rightly so. Do not miss the opportunity to see it again or maybe even for the first time!
Evaluation: ten/ten
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